


Brothers and Sisters

by purajobot935



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Bard and Thorin will have fits, Brothers, F/M, Family Dynamics, Fili is an awesome big brother, First Love, Interspecies Relationship(s), Kili and Tilda are adorable, Little Sisters, Movie Spoilers, Near Death Experiences, Parent Death, Siblings, Sigrid is an awesome big sister, Sisters, Slow Build, but first there's the dragon, for Desolation of Smaug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-29
Packaged: 2018-01-06 02:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1101549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purajobot935/pseuds/purajobot935
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fili and Sigrid may come from entirely differing races, but they soon come to see that they have quite a bit in common - cheeky younger siblings not the least. But before they can even begin to think of anything more than a tenuous friendship, there's still the matter of the dragon, and the army of evil approaching the Northlands.</p><p>Oh, and then there's Bard, Thorin and Kili's unhealthy infatuation with a certain fire-haired elf captain...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

A soft clearing of a throat made Fíli turn away from the dusty window he was looking through and focus on the person in front of him.

“These are for you.”

Bard’s eldest daughter stood before him holding out some dry garments for him to wear, a slightly hesitant look on her face as she took in his rather sorry and bedraggled appearance, and he shifted a little self-consciously as he accepted them.

“Thank you,” he replied. Then he smiled a little, if for nothing else than the absurdity of the situation. “I’m sorry, I realize this is rather awkward.”

To his relief, her shoulders relaxed a little and she smiled back. “Well, it’s not every day I see Dwarves coming out of our toilet. Was it really awful?”

“I’d honestly like to say that I’ve had worse, but…” Fíli paused as if in thought. “Nope. I’d say that has been the lowest part of the journey so far.”

“I’m sorry. Perhaps I can make amends.” She lowered her voice so only he could hear. “If you’d like to go back down, there are a few barrels of fresh water we keep in a corner. It might help you feel clean again.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Fíli replied. His head whipped around as he heard his brother try to suppress a pained groan as he sat, eyes going down to the crudely bound arrow wound on his leg, before he looked up at the human girl again. “Would you mind so much if I shared this little secret with my brother? I’m afraid he took an injury on the way here.”

Her eyes widened. “Of course. Please do so. I’ll prepare you both something warm to drink for when you’re washed and changed.”

Fíli caught his brother’s eyes and made a series of quick, subtle hand-gestures that had Kíli slowly pulling himself back to his feet and hobbling over. He turned back to his companion and forced a somewhat pained smile onto his face, not completely masking the worry that rested there. “Thank you again… I’m afraid I never learned your name, milady.”

The girl blinked in surprise, a touch of pink creeping into her cheeks. “My name is Sigrid, daughter of Bard, but I am no lady. What are you called, Master Dwarf?”

“Fíli, son of Dís, at your service,” Fíli replied with a bow. “And this is Kíli, my younger brother,” he added as Kíli finally joined them.

Kíli attempted to bow and then hissed in pain, leaning against his brother as Fíli grabbed onto his arm to steady him. “I would bow to you properly, Miss Sigrid, but I’m afraid my leg will not allow it today.” He tried to keep his voice light.

Sigrid shook her head. “It is nothing. Please, go down and see to your needs.” With that she turned away, hailing her sister as she walked. “Tilda! Let’s get that kitchen fire stoked.”

Fíli watched her go for a moment before shifting to help Kíli down the stairs.

=====

He had just dressed himself and his brother in the clean – if just a little big – clothes they had been given when there was a knock against the boards of the house.

“Is it safe to come down?” Sigrid’s voice called down to them.

The brothers exchanged a grin before Fíli called back, “Quite safe, we’re both as decent as can be.” Kíli snorted, earning himself a nudge in the ribs. “Be respectful.”

Sigrid descended the stairs, basket of clean bandages and salves in hand. “I thought you might need these for his wound. Has it been cleaned?”

Fíli nodded. “As much as I could.” To his surprise, she walked over to where Kíli was sitting on a bench to see for herself and he found himself hurrying after her. “My lady Sigrid, there’s no need to subject you to such a sight.”

“Really, it’s just a scratch,” Kíli added.

She eyed them both. “Are you afraid I might faint?” Both Dwarves hesitated to reply and she sighed. “I have a younger brother I’ve patched up more times than I can count, and a little sister I’ve cared for since the day she was born. An arrow wound is hardly likely to send me into a fainting spell, I assure you.” 

Having decided the matter settled, she knelt beside Kíli and examined the darkening wound, and Fíli watched as her face took on a frown as she gently touched the dark veins on Kíli’s skin that had grown considerably paler since they’d emerged from the river. He joined her, crouching to hold his brother’s leg down as it twitched under the light probing.

“Do you know what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Poisoned,” she replied, and his heart sank. “But I do not know with what; I’ve never seen a wound like this before. I cannot do much, he needs a proper healer, but I can apply a salve that will keep off any further infection till you can have someone more skilled look at it.”

“It is more than we could have asked for, thank you,” Fíli replied, and Kíli nodded his own thanks as he settled back against the wall, gripping the edges of the bench tightly and willing his leg not to tremble.

“Hold his leg down.” She quickly mixed a few herbs together with a drop of clean water to make a crude paste. “This might sting.”

Kíli let out a pained growl as the salve touched his skin and Fíli tried not to let it get too far into his heart. This was not the first time he’d seen Kíli hurt, he told himself. They’d had plenty of scrapes and broken bones while growing up, yet something told Fíli that this time it was different. The pain was different; it was wrong. He tried not to think of what could happen if Oin was unable to fix him.

Kíli’s breath came in quick, shallow gulps of air as Sigrid quickly wrapped a bandage around his leg, trying to cause as little pain as she could, but it seemed that even the slightest touch on his skin was sending needles into his body and every now and then a groan would escape him.

“Sigrid?” a young, hesitant voice called from above them.

“I’m down here, Tilda,” she called back.

“Da needs you upstairs, and the grouchy dwarf wants to know where the boys have gone.”

Fíli smirked at the child’s description of his uncle, and Kíli let out a small chuckle while Sigrid rose and rinsed her hands in the lake water beside the house. 

“I’ll be right up,” she said and turned to the brothers. “Come, Master Kíli, let’s get you up the stairs.”

Kíli looked like he might refuse the help, but a look from Fíli silenced the protest on his lips as his older brother dropped one of Kíli’s arms around his shoulders and Sigrid took the other. It was only as they reached the top of the stairs that he finally shook them off gently and limped across the room on his own, stopping only to accept a steaming mug from a shy Tilda and giving her a smile in return.

Fíli shook his head as Tilda approached them, balancing the last mug on a tray that Fíli quickly relieved her of with a word of thanks and a smile of his own. Tilda beamed up at him and hurried back to the kitchen with the empty tray.

“Bain is like him,” Sigrid said quietly from beside him as they watched Kíli stop beside Thorin and shift his weight onto his good leg. “My brother. Hates to show weakness in front of Da.”

“You’re the eldest then?” Fíli asked.

She nodded. “And the thing with younger brothers and sisters… you can’t always protect them from the world, no matter how much you try to.”

Fíli looked up at her and saw the familiar sadness in her eyes. He wanted to ask what had happened, for he had not missed the conversation between Bard and Balin on the riverbank, but it was not his place to do so. Instead he excused himself and joined Thorin, Kíli and Balin by the window.

=====

She stood in front of him, disappointed and more than a little upset at his decision to follow his uncle. He couldn’t look her in the eyes. Beside her, Tilda looked up at Kíli leaning heavily on one of the makeshift weapons, clear worry in her eyes – worry that had no place on the face of a seven year old child.

“But you’re not well,” she said.

Kíli forced a smile and reached out to gently pat her head. “Nonsense, I’m perfectly fine.” He made a show of standing up straight to prove it, though neither Fíli nor Sigrid were fooled. “Your sister’s medicine and your broth have made me quite well again, see?”

“You’re still so pale though.” Fíli had to hand it to her; Tilda was a sharp little girl.

“It’s my natural coloring. Walk me to the door?” Kíli offered her his arm with another of his charming smiles and Tilda took it shyly.

Fíli made to go after them. The last thing he wanted was for Kíli to fall down the stairs and take the girl with him, but Bilbo reached the pair first and followed closely behind.

“So we shelter you, clothe you; my father risks everything to bring you weapons, and this is the thanks you give us?” Sigrid’s voice made him finally turn back to look at her.

“I’m sorry,” is all Fíli can think to say. “But time is of the essence. Our journey can afford no more delays.”

“Your brother needs a healer, not another journey to… to wherever it is you have planned.”

“Oin is a healer. He’ll be alright.” Fíli forced himself to believe it.

“He’s getting worse. Anyone can see that. YOU can see that. He needs rest and medicine.”

Fíli shook his head. “Kíli’s strong…”

“Stronger Men have been killed by less.”

“We’re Dwarves. We will endure.” 

“And would you endure if you lost him?!” Sigrid’s voice rose. “Is this journey more important than the life of your brother? What could be so important that you would risk his life – your life – for?”

It was a thought that had plagued him every day, ever since he saw Thorin in the jaws of the white warg; since he’d seen Kíli brought down by an orc arrow. “You wouldn’t understand,” was all he said. How could he even begin to explain their quest without giving everything away? He stepped around Sigrid to go after the others, unable to meet her gaze any more. “Please give your father our thanks and gratitude when he returns….”

“Fíli, you can’t-.”

“It’s not my call to make, Sigrid!” Fíli finally raised his own voice, stopping and glancing back. “I have to protect both of them, because choosing one means I might lose the other.”

The sadness was back in her eyes and Fíli hated that he was the one who had put it there. She looked like she might still say more, but Tilda returned at this point, going straight to her sister and hugging her around the waist, and Fíli figured it was the best time for him to leave. He didn’t miss the little sniffle from the younger of the girls, even as he dared the brother to stop him.

“Bain,” Sigrid called. “Let him go.”

Fíli stopped at the door and looked back at her. “Farewell, Sigrid. I hope we might meet again.” 

He turned and all but fled down the stairs, to Mahal’s furnace with dignity. At the bottom he found Kíli waiting for him, an arm casually resting on Bilbo’s shoulders though Fíli could tell he was putting some weight into it given how his right leg was half-raised off the ground. Bilbo, for his part, refrained from making any comment. Sigrid’s words about not being able to protect him from the world came back to him.

“They’re good people,” Kíli said, looking up at the house. “I’m quite sorry to go so soon.”

“Yes they are,” Bilbo replied. “Very decent. It’s a shame we have to leave like this without even a thank you to Bard.”

“I thanked them on our behalf,” Fíli said, moving forward and taking Kíli’s weight off of Bilbo. Ahead of them Thorin barked an order for everyone to hurry and he sighed. “Let’s get this over with.” He ignored how the setting sun made Kíli look even paler.

=====

When Kíli fell down the stairs with the weapons they had intended to steal – and since when had they all turned into burglars? Wasn’t that the hobbit’s job? – and alerted the town guards to their presence, Fíli again wondered if he might end up paying too high a price to see this quest fulfilled. Kíli was growing weaker with every passing hour, and every time he looked at his brother, Fíli again wondered if they should have just stayed with Bard’s children and waited for him to return.

At least then they wouldn’t be marched through the streets like common criminals caught red-handed, under the eyes of pretty much the entire population of Laketown.

He had one arm around Kíli’s waist to help keep him upright, despite the show Kíli put on whenever one of their elders looked to them, trying not to appear weak. Fíli wished his little brother didn’t care so much about approval.

Turning away from Kíli’s face, Fíli caught himself unconsciously scanning the crowd of people around them as they stopped in the town square. He wasn’t sure why, but he hoped Sigrid had not come to see what was going on; he didn’t think he could have handled the shame had she seen him in their current situation.

Bard was a different matter altogether. For the most part he kept his attention on Kíli, until that loud, pompous Master of Laketown brought up Girion of Dale.

Fíli exchanged a look of surprise with his brother. They knew the history of Dale and her rulers of course. At least her rulers up until the day the dragon came. Girion was the last Lord of Dale… which made Bard, and his family…

“A lord without his lands,” Kíli said softly.

“Just his family. Heirs to a city they never knew,” Fíli remarked.

“A little bit like us, don’t you think?”

Fíli nodded, but never got to answer as the crowds suddenly erupted in cries of welcome. His gaze, however, fell to the slightly drooping shoulders of Bard as the man shook his head sadly and turned and walked away. He wasn’t sure why it bothered him – the man had been trying to stop them from reclaiming Erebor after all – but he felt an unease in his stomach, and all the celebrations in the world that night would not make it go away.


	2. Chapter 2

Somehow the party in Laketown felt tired and lacklustre compared to what he remembered of Bag End and Rivendell. Maybe because they had been in happier times when danger was something that could be beaten off by Gandalf’s timely appearance, and no one had been really hurt. Now, however he found it hard to focus on the noise and drink around him.

His glance fell to Kíli. His younger brother was keeping up appearances as he knew he would, but Fíli could tell that it was taking a toll on his strength. His movements were slower and sluggish than they normally would be, and his speech was slurred, more with pain than with drink, though Kíli would have them believe the latter.

Twice he caught his uncle’s concerned looks directed to his brother and he knew Thorin was not fooled as well.

Come the morning, the Men of Laketown loaded them with armour they thought might be effective against the teeth and claws of a dragon. Fíli almost laughed at the notion, and at the faces of his elders as they grudgingly donned the metal plate armor that Fíli knew he could crumple with just a well-placed fist. Mahal, even Ori or Bilbo could probably make a dent in it if they wanted to.

Idly he wondered what Sigrid would say if she saw him now. Utterly ridiculous, was a good guess. Fíli felt ridiculous. He found himself glancing back in the direction of Bard’s house as he walked down the street to the docks where the Company had a boat waiting for them to take them across the lake.

He wondered how they were coping, and what would happen to them once the Company was gone.

“You’re quiet this day,” Kíli said as he leaned on his brother’s arm, even the slight weight of the armor putting a strain on his injured leg.

“Just thinking,” Fíli replied.

“Of a certain golden-haired lass?” his brother teased and Fíli scoffed.

“No more than you have been thinking of a certain fire-haired captain,” he retorted, noting how Kíli’s pale cheeks took on a bit of pink – the first bit of color he’d seen in Kíli’s skin since he’d been injured. 

Kíli only grinned, weak as it was. “She’s a very pretty lass.” He didn’t specify if he meant Sigrid or the elf – what was her name again?

And then everything went to shambles…

=====

Sigrid’s words came back to him as he saw Kíli’s crestfallen look as their uncle’s words. What use was all the gold and treasure in Erebor if he could not share it with his brother – or worse, if something happened to Kíli while they were all busy dragon-baiting and rolling around in a pile of coins? No, let Thorin denounce him if he wanted to.

“I belong with my brother.”

He had endangered Kíli’s health far too long now. He only hoped he had time to rectify that mistake.

“I cannot treat him here!” Oin said as he frantically searched in his meagre supplies and pulled out a small root that he broke in half. “Chew on this, it will help with the pain.” He held out one half to Kíli

Before his brother could refuse, for they both knew the root tasted extremely bitter, Fíli grabbed it out of the hearler’s hand and all but shoved it into Kíli’s mouth, clapping a hand over to ensure he did as Oin bid. Kíli made a face at him but did as asked.

“Where can we find a healer?” Bofur asked the people that had lingered to see what was going on. “Please, the lad’s in pain.” He hopped up, but the moment he took a step towards them, people turned and quickly dispersed. The Master had long since vanished. “A healer! Please, help us!”

Fíli was disgusted. “Bofur.” Beside him, Kíli gave a groan of pain. The root was not working. “We have to go.”

“But where?” Bofur looked on the verge of despair, an expression Fíli had not seen on the miner’s face before, but then he knew how fond Bofur was of Kíli. “We don’t know anyone; we don’t know where anything is around here.”

“We know someone.” Fíli helped Oin feed Kíli the other half of the root. “Bard.”

“Would he help us? We didn’t exactly leave a good taste in his mouth, especially with Thorin’s little show last night,” Bofur replied.

“I will get on my knees and beg if I have to.” Fíli’s face was set.

Oin hauled Kíli to his feet as gently as he could, but even that prompted a whimper of pain from their youngest and Fíli didn’t fail to notice the sheen of sweat on his now even paler brow. Suddenly it struck him that Kíli could very likely die, and he would be helpless to stop it. Bofur must have come to the same realization.

“Right then. Fíli, get his other arm, I’ll clear the way for us.”

=====

“No. I’m done with Dwarves, go away.”

Fíli felt his heart sink to his feet. He was now supporting Kíli’s full weight, his brother finally unable to walk anymore, and clutched him just a little tighter.

Bofur stopped the door from closing. “Please. No one will help us. Kíli’s sick.” He glanced back at them and then at the Man in front of him. “He’s very sick.”

Bard still hestitated. Behind him Fíli saw a flash of golden hair and Sigrid appeared behind her father’s shoulder. Her eyes widened when she saw the Dwarves and then looked over Kíli before coming to rest on Fíli. He looked up at her then, his own blue eyes pleading one word, _Please_.

“Da…” she started.

“Go inside, Sigrid.”

“Please!” Fíli couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Please, he’s getting worse. I think he could die. Please! I will give you whatever I have. I will work for you if I must, just please, help him!”

“Da…” she said again. “If it was Bain or Tilda…”

Bard sighed, looking Kíli over once more. “Get him inside. Tell Bain to fetch water and heat it and ask Tilda to prepare a bed. I need you to clean that wound and I will see what herbs we have.”

Fíli thought he might collapse in relief. “Thank you. Mahal bless your House till the end of days.”

“Let us not speak of blessings till we see what your uncle does with that cursed beast inside the mountain,” Bard replied as they carried Kíli in and laid him down, Tilda ready with a blanket that she draped over the upper half of Kíli’s body. “Ruin may come to us yet,” he murmured only for Fíli to hear.

Fíli didn’t have it in himself to argue with him.

“Leave him alone, Da,” Sigrid said as she approached with a bowl of hot water and cloth. “He is not responsible for his uncle’s actions any more than Bain is responsible for yours. Whatever grievance you have, let it be with the one who caused it.” She stripped off the old bandage and looked to Fíli. “This will hurt. I need you to hold him down.”

He could only nod, and then tapped Kíli lightly on the head when his brother gave a shallow chuckle.

Bard watched them for a moment then smiled a little sadly. “You grow more like your mother every day. Right down to putting me in my place when I’m being foolish.”

“Someone has to,” Sigrid replied, but turned a brief smile in her father’s direction before getting to work.

“My apologies, Master Dwarf,” Bard addressed Fili as Kíli tightened his grip on his hand when the hot water touched his wound. “I allowed my pride to get the better of me. I know better than to turn away the wounded and sick, be they Man or Dwarf.”

“It’s Fíli. This is Kíli, my brother. That’s Bofur, and this is Oin,” he introduced as the Dwarven healer approached the bed with a mixture of herbs. “And no apologies are needed. I am in your debt nonetheless.”

Bard nodded and turned to see what help he could give Oin and his daughters.

“Ye’ve steady hands, lass,” Oin remarked as they worked on Kíli’s leg. “A bit of training and you’d make a fine healer one day. I know it’s too early to say, but if we survive the dragon and somehow take back Erebor, I wouldn’t mind having an apprentice, if ye be interested.”

Fíli couldn’t help but smile a bit at the way Sigrid straightened with pride and looked to her father.

“Could I, Da?”

“Let us see what outcome the night and the Mountain yields first.”

=====

Kíli was not getting any better.

Fíli watched his brother with concerned blue eyes and saw how shallow his breathing was. Sweat drenched his hair and the pillow he lay on, and no matter how many times Oin and Sigrid bathed and cleaned the wound with hot water and the few herbs they had on hand, the skin around it remained blackened, and Fíli knew if they exposed more of the skin on his leg there would be angry black lines spreading ever further.

“I’ve never encountered this poison before,” Oin said softly to Fíli and Bofur. “The herbs and warmth have slowed its progress but nothing I have seems to completely remove it.”

They looked to where Kíli lay, distracted for a moment from his pain by Tilda’s presence beside him as she talked about the doll she held in her hands.

“She used to be Sigrid’s,” she said. “But sister didn’t much care for dolls, and neither did Bain, so I took her in when no one else wanted her.”

“Did you?” Kíli’s words were slurred, but she didn’t seem to mind. “That was a noble deed.” He tried to smile for her. “Does the wee lass have a name?”

“Frida,” she answered. “I thought she was human, but now I wonder if she might not be a Dwarf.”

Kíli actually gave a soft chuckle at this. “A Dwarf? Well now, let’s have a look.” He took the doll in one hand and looked it over, and Fíli did not fail to notice his trembling fingers. “Most definitely a human lass.” Kíli passed the doll back.

Tilda blinked and looked it over, trying to see if she could maybe see what Kíli saw. “How do you know?”

“Tilda, don’t wear him out. He needs rest.” Sigrid offered Kíli an apologetic smile. “Come away now.”

“No.” Kíli stopped them. “No, it’s alright…. It helps… distract.”

Sigrid nodded and turned her attention to Fíli. “You then, come with me.”

It was Fíli’s turn to blink. “Me?”

“Aye. Don’t think I haven’t seen how much fretting you’ve done these past hours. You need some air and I know where we can get some.”

“But Kíli…”

“Your healer and my father are here. He is in good hands and you will be of more use to him with a clear head.”

“Go on,” Kíli murmured. “Tilda will look after me till you come back to hold my hand again.”

“Alright,” Fíli relented. “Just a little while. And I won’t be far, just on the balcony, if you need me.”

“Yes yes,” Kíli turned to Tilda and began to tell of Dwarf-women and their beards. “They can be so alike in voice and appearance, people often mistake them for Dwarf men.”

Tilda giggled. “So Dwarves don’t just spring out of holes in the ground then?”

Fíli couldn’t help a small smile cross his face as he let himself be led out by Sigrid, and glanced at her as they stepped onto the small balcony just outside the front door. It overlooked part of the town and in the hazy, fading light, Fíli could just make out the peak of the Lonely Mountain. He wondered how Thorin, Bilbo and the others were doing, if they had managed to find the door, and if he would ever see them again. There was the whole matter of the dragon after all, and if the beast was still alive in there…

“You brood a lot.” Sigrid was watching him. “You’re like Da, in a way. He’s always brooding. Puts the rest of us in a right gloom sometimes.”

“Our uncle does it, too. These days a lot more frequently.”

Sigrid glanced back to the door and then to him. “You two seem very loyal to him.”

“Aye, that we are. He practically helped our mother raise us,” Fíli replied.

“And your da?”

Fíli smiled sadly. “Died when I was ten, and Kíli five. Killed by orcs in a raid on one of the travelling caravans.”

Her eyes widened and she laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I did not know. Forgive me, please.”

He laid his hand over hers and looked up at her. “It’s alright. There’s nothing to forgive.” He smiled slightly to assure her, unsure why his heart warmed a little when she smiled back at him.

“I was ten, too,” she said. “Bain was eight… The midwife said it was either her or Tilda, but she would have none of it and sent Tilda into the world before she left it.”

Fíli heard the quiver she bravely tried to keep out of her voice, and his own eyes widened when he saw the tear slide down her cheek, and before he could stop himself, he reached up to brush it off with his thumb. Sigrid gave a breathy laugh, stepping back to wipe away the few more tears that followed and compose herself.

“You must think me so sentimental a maiden,” she said.

“Hardly,” he replied. “I’ve had a lot of time to accept the loss of my father, but you’re only 18?” She nodded. “When I was 18 I could barely look after myself, let alone Kíli, without my mother and uncle. Yet you’ve been looking after your brother and sister… just you and your da.” This time he touched her arm. “You’re strong. Stronger than I was at your age.”

“How old are you now?”

“82.”

“Oh.”

Fíli laughed. “Oh it’s very young for a Dwarf. Only come of age myself a few years ago.”

“82 is still quite a long time to be alive. Some of our elders die at that age, but for your kind, you’re only just beginning your lives.” She shook her head. “How different we are.”

He met her eyes. “Not all that different.” She looked down at him. “We’ve both known the loss of a parent, had to raise and look after our younger siblings. We’re both heirs to lands we’ve never seen, only heard tales about because they were both destroyed by the same beast…”

She regarded him keenly then, and if he moved a little closer to her, she didn’t say anything; and if she leaned a little against his side, Fíli pretended he didn’t notice. He still wasn’t sure what this was, if it was anything at all, and he didn’t want it to lead to heartbreak later on when all their futures were still so uncertain.

The last rays of the sun disappeared as night fell. Sigrid opened her mouth to speak, but before any words could be said, there was an agonized scream from inside the house that made Fíli’s heart drop to his boots, followed almost immediately by Tilda’s frightened cry.

“SIGRID!!”

=====  
=====

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Chapter 2 to tide everyone over into the New Year. I've only just started on Chapter 3, so that's going to take me a while to get done cos it includes everything we saw in DoS right up to the end... and after that is where I get to play guessing games on what happens in the third movie... Ehehehe
> 
> Still haven't decided if I should follow canon, re: Bo5A *cough*.... I'll see how much I want to continue with it XD.
> 
> Meanwhile, thank you for your kind comments. Let's keep this ship sailing!

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even have an excuse for this one. One day I just shipped it and that was that. I myself don't know where this story is going and have nothing beyond the two chapters that are done so far, but let's see, shall we?
> 
> Unbeta-ed/self-beta-ed so if you spot any spelling errors let me know.


End file.
